The Lost Souls (7 page)

“We’re nearly out of food.”

Hockey glanced up from the small fire he’d started inside an empty paint can to where Mira stood above him. She was shivering, gaunt, and tired looking. Hell, they were all cold, tired, and hungry. Winter had been raging much longer than anyone had expected. He felt certain the worst of it should have passed by now, that spring should have sprung, but instead they were still in the thick of winter. Storm after storm continued to rage through the city, leaving them trapped inside and unable to search for food.

For weeks now, they’d been rationing what little was left of their stockpile, eating only meager meals once a day in an attempt to make it last.

Mira dropped down beside him and pulled off her gloves. Holding her reddened, chapped hands near the fire, she rubbed her palms together in an attempt at warming them.

“What’s left?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Some dried fruit, a couple of cans of vegetables.”

Hockey reached up and pulled his Blackhawks baseball cap down over his eyes, something he often did when he was thinking. Someone would have to
leave the building to get food, and no one was going to be able to survive out there…except him. He had enough internal fire to keep a nice bubble around himself that would shield him, but it wouldn’t last forever. He guessed he would be able to pull off a few hours of consistent use until he began to tire, leaving him little choice but to release the element. Whereas his affinity for fire was strong, he didn’t embody the element, he was simply a funnel, a conduit, a connection between the ether and the earth. He could channel that power, use his body as a spark to light the flame, and then direct that flame, tell it where to go and what to do. But eventually, as with any sort of physical exertion, it would take its toll.

Flicking up the brim of his cap, he reached across the small space and grabbed Mira’s shoulder
. “I’ll take care of it,” he said, giving her a friendly squeeze.

“And I’ll come with you.”

Hockey released her shoulder. He should have seen that coming. Mira wasn’t only headstrong and stubborn, she was also insubordinate as all hell. “No,” he said slowly. “It’s too dangerous.” Forget the fact that couldn’t use his magic in front of her; even if he could, he didn’t have enough energy to shield them both from the storm.

“And it’s not too dangerous for you?” she demanded. “Do you have superpowers that I’m not aware of?”

Well…yeah, he did.

“No way,” he said firmly
. “I’m not risking both our lives out there.”

Mira’s eyes flared wide and Hockey readied himself for some verbal whiplash of the female variety.

“Tyler!” she yelled. “Tyler!”

Hockey closed his eyes. He had to hand it to her
; Mira was a smart girl who fought dirty. Sighing, he got to his feet just as Tyler reached their corner of the room. “What’s up?” he asked, looking from Hockey to Mira. She pointed an accusatory finger in Hockey’s direction.

“He’s going out there and he won’t take me with him.”

God damn her, Hockey thought. God damn…women.

“Man,” Tyler said, squatting down beside him
. “It isn’t safe out there.”

Hockey turned just a fraction of an inch and met Tyler’s gaze. “It isn’t safe in here either.”

“Mira,” Tyler said, keeping his eyes on Hockey. “Give us a minute, will you?”

In typical Mira fashion, she made a noisy show of getting to her feet, sighing loudly
, and muttering as she stomped off across the room.

“You need to take her,” Tyler insisted, his expression grave. “She’ll be safer facing the elements than she would be here with…”

Tyler trailed off, but Hockey knew what the man was about to say. Mira would be safer battling through the snowstorm than trapped inside a warehouse with two men who couldn’t be trusted.

“What about Rachael?” Hockey asked.

“I can protect her,” Tyler replied, his tone oozing confidence that Hockey couldn’t mirror.

David was physically strong
but emotionally unraveling. Glancing across the large room, Hockey found the man was leaning back against a wall, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes on Rachael. The feeling of foreboding Hockey felt every time he looked at the guy intensified. If Chris and David teamed up against Tyler, Hockey wasn’t positive the man would prevail.

All of which meant Tyler was right. Hockey couldn’t leave Mira behind knowing what he knew, but neither did he want to leave Tyler or Rachel at the mercy of two men who were proving to be highly unstable.
On the other hand, he couldn’t take everyone. Rachael, especially. It would be hard enough wading through the raging storm outside, dodging Skins and searching for food. Having to listen to Rachael complain, or worse, crumple under pressure, which was something she was good at, would only lengthen their time outdoors or worse, result in all of their deaths.

Sighing in resignation, Hockey nodded in agreement. But he was far from happy about any of this.

Now he was going to have to come clean about his magic, at least with Mira, and hope to God she didn’t have a nervous breakdown because of it.

Tyler rose to his full height and Hockey followed suit.

“If you run into trouble out there,” Tyler said, “don’t worry about us, okay? Just protect yourselves.”

Half an hour later, Tyler and Hockey were moving aside the stacks of shipping crates and tearing down slats of wood they’d used to barricade the door.
Hockey took quick peek into the hallway, his ears straining for any sort of noise that wasn’t related to the weather, and decided it was safe enough.

Reentering the room, he glanced at each face of his small group of companions. Tyler looked resolute and Rachel appeared worried. Chris looked ambivalent
, and David? David just looked insane.

He didn’t like this. So many things could go wrong. But what choice did he have?

Turning away from the group, Hockey tossed Mira the other end of the rope he’d triple-wrapped and tightly knotted around his waist. He waited until she did the same, and then he double-checked her knot. After adding another layer of coats, gloves, ski masks, and scarves, they shouldered their empty bags and looked at each other.

“Ready?”
she whispered, looking far more determined that he felt.

Instead of answering her, Hockey turned to Tyler. “Board this up immediately after we leave,” he said, pointing at the door. “I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.”

“Be safe,” Tyler said, already bending down to pick up a slat of wood.

From his place behind Tyler, Chris snorted. “They’ll be dead before sunset,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

Rolling his own eyes, Hockey headed out into the hallway first, followed closely by Mira. They stopped and turned, watching as Tyler shut the door behind them.

“You sure?” he asked Mira.

She nodded. “Are you sure?”

Ignoring her question, he brought his hand to his mouth and using his teeth, he pulled off his glove. “I have to show you something,” he said, watching her closely. “And I need you to remain calm.”

Mira smirked. “If you’re about to show me the weird white fire that comes from your hands, don’t bother. I already know.”

Astonished, his hand fell limply to his side. “You already know?”

“I’ve seen you,” she said, shrugging. “You keep the fires going when you think everyone’s sleeping. You melt the ice from the windows and your blankets are always crazy warm when everyone else’s are frozen.”

He stared at her. “I don’t scare you?”

To further his amazement, the girl burst out laughing.

“Scare me? You? Hockey, we’re stranded in an abandoned warehouse with a Marilyn Manson wannabe, a useless bimbo, and creepy-ass David. We’re half frozen to death, nearly out of food, and a blizzard to rival all blizzards has us trapped. Let’s not forget about the hordes of people-eating demon freaks who have taken over the world. And you think you scare me? You? The nicest guy in the whole world? No, Hockey, you don’t scare me. I figured it was a Gypsy thing. I’ve never met a Gypsy before, but I’ve seen movies about them, and they always have magic in the movies.” She shrugged again. “So then, are you ready now?”

Hockey stared at her a moment longer before allowing his threatening smile to break free. “Yeah,” he said, laughing.

Grinning, Mira pulled her ski mask down and turned toward the stairs. Glancing back at him, her eyebrows lifted in question. “Let’s do this.”

“Why the fuck not?” Tahyra hissed.

Shandor crossed the few feet between them, taking in her narrowed eyes, her clenched fists
, and fang-filled snarl.

“Are you questioning me, fată?” he demanded and quickly accompanied his words with a feral growl that he didn’t wholeheartedly feel. It was more for a show of control over what was his. And she was his. The entire pack was his.

“Gods!” she screamed. “What is wrong with you? Why are we hiding out? And why are we eating animals?” She practically spat her last word as if the very feel of it on her tongue had left a rotten taste in her mouth.

His claws began to lengthen, not out of anger but frustration. Since taking control of her pack, he’d kept them away from places humans might be hiding out, but even that hadn’t stopped them from running into a few loners. His own participation in the feasts that had always followed filled him with guilt every time he allowed himself to think of it. It was one of the downfalls of pack life, living among a group of creatures with only selfish, single-minded needs. The pack mentality combined with the insatiable
hunger seemed to overpower any sort of rational thinking.

So
Shandor had begun to keep them hidden, staying in or near heavily wooded areas where wildlife was sure to be, thinking he was keeping them full and satisfied. But not even he, more rational than his entire pack put together, could deny that human flesh was ten times more satisfying than eating animals. Humans simply tasted better, leaving him feeling more fulfilled, more…human. But when that humanity would begin to wane, the hunger was ten times worse.

His arm shot out and he wrapped his hand around Tahyra’s slim neck, digging his claws purposely deep into her skin. Blood wept from each individual wound and ran thick down her naked body before falling in droplets onto the snow at their feet. Lifting her, he swung her body to his right and straight into the wide trunk of an oak tree.

“You will do as I say,” he growled, baring his fangs.

“You’re forgetting,” she hissed, “that this pack was mine before it was yours.”

“I’m not forgetting a damn thing,” he shot back, digging his claws deeper, watching as the tips of his fingers disappeared inside Tahyra’s neck. She gasped and choked as blood gurgled up through her throat and exploded from her mouth.

Locking his jaw, Shandor fought the urge to lick her from head to toe. “If you continue to argue with me, fată, I will pick another female to fuck.”

“You…could…try,” she rasped, her garbled words barely audible.

Frustrated, he released her and she fell to the ground in
a heap, clutching her throat. He wasn’t getting through to her, and other than actually fucking another female, something he had no desire to do, he was out of ideas.

Since the day he’d taken control of the pack
, he hadn’t been with another female aside from Tahyra. But on that first day, in his feral haze of bestial-fueled power, he’d taken each female, some more than once. After that, Tahyra had threatened any female that had come near him, and he hadn’t cared. Surprisingly, the fată was more than enough to satisfy him. Where, as a human, he’d once been easily bored with any woman, he had yet to tire of this one.

Even stranger, he felt sort of loyal to her.

But now he needed to make a fucking point, and if taking another female in front of her—showing her that it wasn’t him that belonged to her but instead was the other way around—was the lone way to knock her off that queen-of-the-universe pedestal she was standing on, then so be it.

Shandor glanced to where the rest of the pack had gathered.

“Marisa,” he growled, pointing at a heavyset female. “And Courtney.”

Both females spr
ang to attention and leaped to their feet, but neither of them reached him. Tahyra charged past him, a bloody, snarling ball of fury that met Courtney head-on. Shandor watched Courtney’s body fly through the air, disappearing from sight. Before Courtney’s body hit the ground, Tahyra had already twisted Marisa’s head clear off.

With a savage grin on her beautiful face, Tahyra held up the head in her grip and started to laugh.

“If you try that again,” she threatened, “I will kill them all.

It should have angered him, another blatant show of disobedience, but it didn’t.

It didn’t because…

Her red eyes were flickering. Red to brown, red to brown…

This wasn’t anger. It wasn’t dominance or aggression, nor was it a situation of kill or be killed.

This was jealousy
, and jealousy was a very human emotion. If Tahyra was capable of a human emotion, it meant…

Tahyra still had her soul. It was buried deep within her, cocooned and hidden in dark magic, but it was there.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, fată,” he said and leaped.

Moving lightning fast, he barreled into her middle, knocking her down into the snow. Tahyra let out a low purring growl filled with lascivious intent. Beneath him, she rolled her body and lifted her backside in offering.

Shandor felt the beast rising. He could feel it clawing and scratching its way back to the surface.

He had to keep it together.

He had to…

First, he had to stop fucking her like a goddamn dog.

Flipping her over, he spread her legs and pushed inside of her.

“You’re beautiful,
Tayhra,” he growled softly. “The face of a goddess, with the body of a whore. Fată, you’re a goddamn work of art.”

Red eyes blinked up at him—once, twice, three times.

“You’re the sort of beautiful a man doesn’t just want to fuck. You’re the kind a man wants to watch fall apart beneath him, so he knows that it was him who broke her.”

A small exhale of air escaped Tahyra’s parted lips, diverting his attention. When he looked back up into her eyes, he found that they were brown. He watched, shocked and elated, as a single tear fell from the corner of her eye, slid down the side of her face, and disappeared beneath his hand.

Shandor didn’t need to rein in the beast after that.

He made love to her as a man.